There’s a saying in north Karnataka that if one throws a stone in Gadag, it is going to land both at a printing press or on the compositor’s doorstep. Although Gadag was once a hub for textile, oil, and flour mills to start with of the twentieth century, its printing trade is what has earned it the utmost fame.
In 1872, Gauri Shankar Mishra, a railway contractor from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, laid the inspiration stone for Jnana Chandrodaya Printing Press, thereby marking a watershed second within the metropolis’s historical past.His intention was to publish Kannada literary works. Later, he established Rasika Ranjini Chhapkhana from the place ‘Rasika Ranjini’, thought-about to be the primary weekly journal of Gadag, was rolled out in 1884. Although some books had been additionally revealed by the missionaries of Basel Mission Church in Gadag, these had been printed in Mangaluru. As we speak Gadag is well-known for guide works in addition to job works. Many presses had been established right here to publish newspapers specializing in non secular, philosophical, and non secular subjects. Notably, these presses had been named after newspapers similar to ‘Satyavritta’ (1888), ‘Karnataka Bandhu’ (1930) and ‘Praja’ (1946-47). Notably, the Vijaya Dhwaja printing press revealed ‘Kritapura Vaibhava’ in 1899-1900. Lady journalist-cum-freedom fighter Tarabai Vajpayee, a kin of Mishra, who had migrated from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, restarted ‘Rasika Ranjini’ in 1925 to propagate Gandhian ideas and create consciousness on the liberty battle amongst commoners. Manjunath Naragund, a historical past fanatic, famous that the evolution of the printing trade might be labeled into 4 phases: Litho Press, Letter Press, Offset Printing and Digital Printing. “Since Gadag was the primary (in Kanaginahal village) to begin a cooperative society in Asia, the cooperative motion fed the printing trade with accounts books for publication. Then, with the Indian freedom battle gathering steam and the Karnataka Unification Motion gaining floor, printing trade noticed a growth. Even beginner theatre that emerged within the Nineteen Sixties offered the printing trade with copious portions of fabric to print,” Naragund stated. In 1921, as electrification reached Gadag, it led to a world of change within the printing trade, with guide energy making approach for electrical printing machines. With this, treadle printing machines, that wanted to be manually pedalled, had been powered by electrical energy, making your complete course of extra environment friendly, and fewer laborious and time-consuming. Curiously, even beedi-making, which was then integral to the tobacco trade, contributed to the expansion of the printing trade in Gadag. Beedi makers wanted to print labels for the packaging of their merchandise and in 1958-59, Narasingasa Chhap Beedi, a number one producer since 1880, arrange its personal press to have its beedi labels printed.
The printing trade additionally gave rise to a specialised workforce referred to as compositors. Legend has it that Maktumsab Kunneebhavi was the primary employee to be employed at Jnana Chandrodaya Printing Press in 1872. “Till the final couple of a long time, there was not a single road or neighbourhood within the twin cities of Gadag and Betgeri that didn’t have a compositor residing there. Nonetheless, with the appearance of digital printing, this workforce misplaced its shine,” recollects Girish who had labored as a compositor in Gadag for 3 a long time. Some proof of the excessive demand for compositors might be present in late Fakeersa Shivannasa Bhandage’s autobiography ‘Yaaru Naanu? Jeevana Kathana’ (Who am I? A life story). Bhandage, who had joined as a trainee compositor, later went on to turn into the proprietor of a printing press. “Press house owners used to offer meals, lodging and different services,” he recalled. “They might even sponsor weekend sightseeing journeys for the contract employees in Hyderabad,” Bhandage mentions within the guide. The compositors had been progressively changed with DTP operators. In accordance with Mrutyunjay Sankeshwar, CMD, Sankeshwar Printers Personal Restricted, the printing trade continues to be surviving owing to its capacity to maintain tempo with altering instances. “With regards to Gadag, its aggressive pricing, coupled with technological upgradation, have helped guarantee high quality printing at inexpensive value,” Sankeshwar claimed.
Nonetheless, the present situation is not all that rosy for the printing trade in Gadag. In accordance with the town’s municipal data, there are about 40 printing presses at present practical, although outdated timers imagine the precise figures may very well be even much less – a far cry from the times earlier than the appearance of digital applied sciences. Veterans rue that what was as soon as a “cottage trade”, has dwindled to just a bit over two dozen printing presses now. The pandemic has taken its toll on the printing sector, says Vinayak Khona, proprietor of Abhishek Offset Prints. “After the Covid-19 pandemic, the variety of books we print has come down by 75%,” he stated. The dwindling variety of printing presses however, many nonetheless imagine that each one is actually not misplaced provided that there are nonetheless numerous individuals who “choose studying tales, poems, novels, and non-fiction within the type of bodily books”. This, regardless of the rising recognition of digital units. “There are at the very least half a dozen publishers of literary books in Gadag,” Khona stated, citing a working example. Printers of Gadag proceed to obtain orders from publishers based mostly in Dharwad, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Ballari, Koppal, Vijayapura, Bagalkot and different locations within the north Karnataka area, he added. Ramesh Katti, a writer from Almel in Vijayapura, stated he had given print orders for all of the 40 titles he had introduced out to date, to a printing press in Gadag. “Printing books is totally completely different from different jobs similar to pamphlets or magazines. DTP operators must pay much more consideration to the textual content, and people in Gadag are fairly environment friendly,” he defined. Katti additional stated: “So far as printing know-how is anxious, Gadag is at par with any main metropolis within the nation – no compromise when it comes to high quality and supply is all the time on time.”
MN Kambale, who labored as a compositor and now owns Kambale Printers, recalled how he was interviewed by veteran author Ha Ma Nayak, 4 a long time in the past. “I used to be working as a compositor in a printing press. Nayak as soon as got here to me and sought particulars about our livelihood. I defined the state of affairs to him. He then wrote about our plight in his column Samprati in ‘Prajamatha’, which was a preferred weekly in these days. He wrote that Gadag turned ‘Mudrana Kaashi’ (the Kashi of printing) – because of the blood and sweat of the employees. He additionally noticed that the wages of labourers in Gadag had been meagre in comparison with what was paid in Bengaluru,” Kambale stated. “After studying about our plight in Nayak’s column, Jnanpith awardee Shivaram Karanth met me and appreciated the truth that I had spoken the reality. He even assured he would incorporate our story in his future novels,” Kambale recalled. Kambale additional stated that even now, employees within the printing trade come beneath quite a lot of strain from the press house owners resulting from stiff competitors. “We get a really small margin (of the revenue). Many presses don’t even present state-sponsored healthcare (ESI) or Provident Fund choices to their employees right here,” he added. “Whereas earlier, operating the printing press was a ardour, now it is simply an trade,” Kambale rued.
In 1872, Gauri Shankar Mishra, a railway contractor from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, laid the inspiration stone for Jnana Chandrodaya Printing Press, thereby marking a watershed second within the metropolis’s historical past.His intention was to publish Kannada literary works. Later, he established Rasika Ranjini Chhapkhana from the place ‘Rasika Ranjini’, thought-about to be the primary weekly journal of Gadag, was rolled out in 1884. Although some books had been additionally revealed by the missionaries of Basel Mission Church in Gadag, these had been printed in Mangaluru. As we speak Gadag is well-known for guide works in addition to job works. Many presses had been established right here to publish newspapers specializing in non secular, philosophical, and non secular subjects. Notably, these presses had been named after newspapers similar to ‘Satyavritta’ (1888), ‘Karnataka Bandhu’ (1930) and ‘Praja’ (1946-47). Notably, the Vijaya Dhwaja printing press revealed ‘Kritapura Vaibhava’ in 1899-1900. Lady journalist-cum-freedom fighter Tarabai Vajpayee, a kin of Mishra, who had migrated from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, restarted ‘Rasika Ranjini’ in 1925 to propagate Gandhian ideas and create consciousness on the liberty battle amongst commoners. Manjunath Naragund, a historical past fanatic, famous that the evolution of the printing trade might be labeled into 4 phases: Litho Press, Letter Press, Offset Printing and Digital Printing. “Since Gadag was the primary (in Kanaginahal village) to begin a cooperative society in Asia, the cooperative motion fed the printing trade with accounts books for publication. Then, with the Indian freedom battle gathering steam and the Karnataka Unification Motion gaining floor, printing trade noticed a growth. Even beginner theatre that emerged within the Nineteen Sixties offered the printing trade with copious portions of fabric to print,” Naragund stated. In 1921, as electrification reached Gadag, it led to a world of change within the printing trade, with guide energy making approach for electrical printing machines. With this, treadle printing machines, that wanted to be manually pedalled, had been powered by electrical energy, making your complete course of extra environment friendly, and fewer laborious and time-consuming. Curiously, even beedi-making, which was then integral to the tobacco trade, contributed to the expansion of the printing trade in Gadag. Beedi makers wanted to print labels for the packaging of their merchandise and in 1958-59, Narasingasa Chhap Beedi, a number one producer since 1880, arrange its personal press to have its beedi labels printed.
The printing trade additionally gave rise to a specialised workforce referred to as compositors. Legend has it that Maktumsab Kunneebhavi was the primary employee to be employed at Jnana Chandrodaya Printing Press in 1872. “Till the final couple of a long time, there was not a single road or neighbourhood within the twin cities of Gadag and Betgeri that didn’t have a compositor residing there. Nonetheless, with the appearance of digital printing, this workforce misplaced its shine,” recollects Girish who had labored as a compositor in Gadag for 3 a long time. Some proof of the excessive demand for compositors might be present in late Fakeersa Shivannasa Bhandage’s autobiography ‘Yaaru Naanu? Jeevana Kathana’ (Who am I? A life story). Bhandage, who had joined as a trainee compositor, later went on to turn into the proprietor of a printing press. “Press house owners used to offer meals, lodging and different services,” he recalled. “They might even sponsor weekend sightseeing journeys for the contract employees in Hyderabad,” Bhandage mentions within the guide. The compositors had been progressively changed with DTP operators. In accordance with Mrutyunjay Sankeshwar, CMD, Sankeshwar Printers Personal Restricted, the printing trade continues to be surviving owing to its capacity to maintain tempo with altering instances. “With regards to Gadag, its aggressive pricing, coupled with technological upgradation, have helped guarantee high quality printing at inexpensive value,” Sankeshwar claimed.
Nonetheless, the present situation is not all that rosy for the printing trade in Gadag. In accordance with the town’s municipal data, there are about 40 printing presses at present practical, although outdated timers imagine the precise figures may very well be even much less – a far cry from the times earlier than the appearance of digital applied sciences. Veterans rue that what was as soon as a “cottage trade”, has dwindled to just a bit over two dozen printing presses now. The pandemic has taken its toll on the printing sector, says Vinayak Khona, proprietor of Abhishek Offset Prints. “After the Covid-19 pandemic, the variety of books we print has come down by 75%,” he stated. The dwindling variety of printing presses however, many nonetheless imagine that each one is actually not misplaced provided that there are nonetheless numerous individuals who “choose studying tales, poems, novels, and non-fiction within the type of bodily books”. This, regardless of the rising recognition of digital units. “There are at the very least half a dozen publishers of literary books in Gadag,” Khona stated, citing a working example. Printers of Gadag proceed to obtain orders from publishers based mostly in Dharwad, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Ballari, Koppal, Vijayapura, Bagalkot and different locations within the north Karnataka area, he added. Ramesh Katti, a writer from Almel in Vijayapura, stated he had given print orders for all of the 40 titles he had introduced out to date, to a printing press in Gadag. “Printing books is totally completely different from different jobs similar to pamphlets or magazines. DTP operators must pay much more consideration to the textual content, and people in Gadag are fairly environment friendly,” he defined. Katti additional stated: “So far as printing know-how is anxious, Gadag is at par with any main metropolis within the nation – no compromise when it comes to high quality and supply is all the time on time.”
MN Kambale, who labored as a compositor and now owns Kambale Printers, recalled how he was interviewed by veteran author Ha Ma Nayak, 4 a long time in the past. “I used to be working as a compositor in a printing press. Nayak as soon as got here to me and sought particulars about our livelihood. I defined the state of affairs to him. He then wrote about our plight in his column Samprati in ‘Prajamatha’, which was a preferred weekly in these days. He wrote that Gadag turned ‘Mudrana Kaashi’ (the Kashi of printing) – because of the blood and sweat of the employees. He additionally noticed that the wages of labourers in Gadag had been meagre in comparison with what was paid in Bengaluru,” Kambale stated. “After studying about our plight in Nayak’s column, Jnanpith awardee Shivaram Karanth met me and appreciated the truth that I had spoken the reality. He even assured he would incorporate our story in his future novels,” Kambale recalled. Kambale additional stated that even now, employees within the printing trade come beneath quite a lot of strain from the press house owners resulting from stiff competitors. “We get a really small margin (of the revenue). Many presses don’t even present state-sponsored healthcare (ESI) or Provident Fund choices to their employees right here,” he added. “Whereas earlier, operating the printing press was a ardour, now it is simply an trade,” Kambale rued.
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